Each summer, we enjoy a summer reading project.  It seems a little out of place, I suppose, as we school year round, and I think the intent of summer reading programs at the public libraries was to help prevent summer brain atrophy.  Call it a vestige of my youth if you will, but "summer" and "extra reading" are inseparable concepts for me.

Each summer we try something a little different.  When I had only one reader, I set a goal of a certain number of pages, and we kept track of his progress on a big chart in the dining room.  One summer we set a family goal of a certain number of books. 

This year I wanted to challenge my 3 readers.  It is a blessing to have voracious readers, but it carries with it the burden of keeping them well stocked with reading material while trying to keep that reading material confined to themes and issues appropriate to their ages.  A friend suggested a couple resources for me to help find books for the children: The Well Trained Mind (the reading lists), and this website.  I have copies of these lists and have assigned a point value to the books listed. Each child has a weekly goal of a certain number of points.  This should help us make better use of our public library, as we can bring the lists along.

This summer I also changed the reward format.  For the past few years, our family would enjoy a trip to an amusement park 3 hours away as our reward for meeting our goals. It has become such a fun family tradition that we are unwilling to allow its recurrence to depend upon our children's diligence!  So we're doing smaller, more frequent rewards this summer.  The first prizes will be awarded in a week to any children who meet their weekly goal for 2 weeks.  The prize?  A new book, of course!

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Reason 8,342,801 to homeschool...click here.

And yes, this is an ELEMENTARY school.

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I've discovered that I'm not a great phone conversationalist, especially with some of my family members.  It's not that I don't like talking on the phone, I just have very little to say to the question, "So what's new at your house?"

There is rarely anything new.  One weekday looks pretty much like another, Sundays are all very similar, and Saturdays don't vary enough to merit talking about them.  This is not a complaint...this is a routine I have chosen, and it seems to be the natural product of our homeschooling style.  We get up, do chores, get breakfast, do school, have lunch, have reading time, school...you know the drill.  The difference between school days is often limited to the clothes we're wearing...and that's nothing worth noting in phone conversations.

I can't help but wonder if my conversation partners are pitying me.  Are they thinking, "Poor girl.  What a dreadful monotony."?  If they only knew how very full my days are, and the joy it gives to see my children growing, slowly and steadily, into people who love to learn, who can work contentedly toward a distant goal, and who seek to honor the King in all they do, say and think.

Nothing new going on over here...how about at your house?

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You've gotta love this.  Here comes the press, touting benefits of homeschooling...but only when absolutely forced to do so: article

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We school year-round, so I feel no guilt in announcing random vacation days. Yesterday, the boys and I worked on our bedrooms. I don't know why, but my bedroom has always been the "junk room"...you know the room where you put things you don't know where else to put? The mending that needs doing, the pictures that are supposed to be in albums, the odd sock, the fabric scraps from the sewing marathon two weeks ago, the present for a nephew's birthday next week...that room.  No more! My room is no longer a dumping ground.  I spend a lot of time in there...I should like being in there. The boys' room is also much improved, but it is hard to keep 50+ books, a rock collection, a metal detector, the largest paper airplane collection in the world, clothing, etc., neat and tidy in a small room.  Well, my room is tidy, now, so I won't feel like a hypocrite when I'm after the boys to pick up their room...

No school today, either.  We ran to the post office and walmart this morning.  While in Walmart, we decided to make a fall wreath to hang on the front of the house.  We had so much fun picking out just the right colored flowers and ribbons!  We're planning on assembling our masterpiece this afternoon, and we're going to do it in a non-permanent fashion, so that we can change out the decorations for each season.  It will be a fun project, and a lovely way to welcome people coming through the front door.  Maybe today should be considered a school day! Home Beautification 101.

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Sean came to me the other night to ask my opinion about the Psalms class he is teaching for a local University.  One of the standard requirements for the class is to read through the whole book of Psalms twice.  He had been teaching a lesson about how the Scriptures had been handwritten by scribes, and it occurred to him to offer a transcription of the Psalms as an optional substitute for the two read-throughs.

I thought it was such a good idea, that I want to do it myself, along with the children.  What a great way to hide the word in our hearts!  I have always been one who learns best by writing down what I need to learn...I don't even need to review the notes I take...just writing them makes them "stick" better. The kids need handwriting practice, too, so why not?  Next trip to the store, I'll find some neat notebooks for us, and away we'll go!

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We're on our 6th year of homeschooling.  While I am thrilled by seeing my children learning and developing through their studies, I am also very happy about one of the side effects of homeschooling--the improvement of my own education.

I went to good public schools and a good university, and yet I am finding gaping holes in my own education.  I believe I made it through high school with no history classes, aside from an American History  correspondence course I took to free up an hour for a high school choir.  I took 2 3-hour classes in history in college: History of Christianity and Christianity in America (philosophy major).  Now, in teaching history to my children, I am finding that I am amazingly ignorant of history. And ignorance is NOT bliss!

Sean and I joke about the "millions" of reasons homeschooling is great, picking random numbers just to be ridiculous.  So, with respect to the above, Reason 324, 557 to homeschool: Mama's gettin' her education, too!

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